A Nutty Puzzle or a Gamerscore Grab?
44 minutes.
That’s how long it’s taken me to mop up everything that Chippy’s Stash has to offer.
That’s with working through all 30 stages for game completion, passing by the 2000 Gamerscore and 26 achievements that Afil Games have thrown in. If you’re only after that Gamerscore, you’ll be done with this one well before a half hour is out.
However, I’ve played enough Afil Games games to know that a sub-hour playthrough is very much par for the course in what is provided to the Xbox gaming scene. Does that mean Chippy’s Stash is another cheap and cheerful game that is good for nothing but those Gs and some leaderboard bragging rights? Hell yeah it does. Lap it up if you like.
Should you want anything more from it though, like a game that is going to stick in the memory for days, weeks and months onward, then much like nearly every single game that Afil have dropped onto the Xbox Store in recent times, you’re going to be left well wanting.
Chippy’s Stash’s Simple Sokoban Gameplay
In Chippy’s Stash, you play as Chippy. Well, we’re making that assumption for ourselves, as there is zero set up to the puzzling action that is to play out here. A little squirrel, it’s your job to push some acorns around 30 stages in a Sokoban style, letting them rest in the relevant holes provided. Get all acorns in each stage placed nicely and old Chippy will move onto the next.
If you have played any Sokoban type game in the years previous, then you’ll be right at home with what this one does. It’s as easy as pie to get to grips with too, never testing the grey matter for more than a few seconds at any one time. Grab that controller, shift Chippy along the horizontal and vertical axis, kicking acorns as they go, and your time with Chippy’s Stash will be an unmemorable one.
We flew through the puzzles here, with hardly a single problem ever arising. It’s as easy as the most basic of Sokoban puzzling, and so if you’re familiar with the genre, and enjoy the short buzz they give, you may as well drop the few quid needed to get in on the action.
Obstacles and Aids: Navigating Chippy’s World
Of course, it’s not totally straightforward, and Chippy will need to work with a few random obstacles that can both help and hinder. Burrows – aka, portals – help with the manoeuvring of acorns across levels, and pushing them into, before watching them pop out of them, is always a joy. There are also the occasional L-shaped logs that help those acorns move around a bend. Mud tiles are also present, as acorns slide along multiple tiles at once.
Utilising combinations of these ideas will help you and Chippy run to full completion. The thing is, not a single level in Chippy’s Stash comes with anything more than just a handful of acorns, and so level completions can be ticked off in a mere minute; two at most.
Gamerscore Grab: A Quick Path to 2000G
This is most definitely a game for the Gamerscore hunter more than anyone else, then. With the cool 2000G mopped up in minutes after you’ve rinsed the ‘restart’ and ‘undo’ options, we’d suspect that the low asking price will tempt a good few in. Yet as is the norm from an Afil game, if you’re wanting anything more than that, then, well, wanting will be all you are left with.
It looks okay though, clear enough in the visuals to ensure you always know what is to come. But don’t expect to ever be blown away with anything that Chippy’s Stash offers; it really is gaming in its most basic form, as our squirrely protagonist moves this way and that across the tiled boards. Similar goes for the audio – it’s about as forgettable as a soundtrack could ever be.
A Forgettable Puzzler for Gamerscore Seekers
As always with these types of games, come to Chippy’s Stash knowing that you’ll be leaving it again well within an hour, and understand that the majority who do buy it will do so for Gamerscore bragging alone, and it’s hard to knock what is offered. But if you’re looking for a game that is approaching anything near ‘decent’, you’re going to be left disappointed.
Another for the Gamerscore hunter only.
Grab Some Links
Squirrely Sokoban Action is What Chippy’s Stash Offers on Xbox and PlayStation – https://www.thexboxhub.com/squirrely-sokoban-action-is-what-chippys-stash-offers-on-xbox-and-playstation/
Buy Chippy’s Stash, Optimised for Xbox Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/chippys-stash/9nlmq4rfg9vz
Or an Xbox One version – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/chippys-stash-xbox-one/9n7b9bz2x0wg
There’s a Bundle too! – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/chippys-stash-xbox-bundle/9P533JLZWNSJ/0010
